Word: spinal
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...have a bad back and not even know it. One of the commonest back problems physicians treat, called spinal stenosis, gives leg symptoms: pain, tingling, numbness and weakness down the legs, knees and thighs - and often without back pain. Few orthopedists can get through their week without seeing a patient with spinal stenosis - the problem is just so widespread. Worse, it doesn't really get better. With all the pills, therapies, shots, braces and exercises we prescribe, it's a rare case of spinal stenosis that we can make go away...
...also, of course, the option of surgery. Some orthopedists operate on the spine, but most of us, though trained in spine surgery, do not. That job is left to the orthopedists and neurosurgeons who are designated as "spine surgeons," and who restrict their practices solely to this procedure. Spinal stenosis operations are among the most common, the most expensive and the most feared, with lots of complications - paralysis, blood clots, infection, leaking of spinal fluid, intractable pain...
...dreary world of spinal stenosis was cheered up last February by a report in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that surgery for spinal stenosis works better than all of our other non-surgical treatments. The well-known authors of the paper included surgeons who have spent their careers doing the operation. The report claimed to be a first - an "evidence-based" study in which researchers did statistical analysis of how spinal stenosis patients fared with surgery versus non-surgical treatment...
...might seem odd that we have already spent billions of dollars and millions of painful and risky man-hours - as doctors and patients - on spinal stenosis surgery, all without "knowing" (until now) whether or not it "works." Welcome to the trendy world of "evidence-based" medicine...
...Chinese expect nothing less than perfection. On August 11, Chinese pair Lin Yue and Huo Liang triumphed in the men's synchronized 10m platform event, winning by a resounding 17.76 points. Silver went to the German squad, with the Russians - one of whom just recently recovered from a spinal injury - rounding out the medals count...